Fort Ritchie
|
|
| Fort Ritchie is a 638 acre Army post in the hills near the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. It was officially closed in 1998, and is in transition. A development company is awaiting transfer, clean-up, and conversion, though the military still uses the facility for reservists. A proposal to headquarter the new Office of Homeland Security at the site was rejected. Much of the mission of the base was taken over by Fort Detrick, MD. One of the missions of Fort Ritchie was as the support facility for Site R, otherwise known as Raven Rock, an underground command center for the Pentagon, located underneath 650 acres, near the Fort. Site R is officially called the Alternate Joint Communications Center. Representatives of all the military departments and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the federal government were said to have been (and may still be) located here as a contingency against a wipeout of the command structure in the event of a nuclear war. A new tenant is the Defense Information Systems Agency, Western Hemisphere, which reportedly operates the communication and command center located in 265,000 square foot bunker. |
|
55 miles NW of Baltimore, near Blue Ridge Summit
(POINT(-77.50512 39.70076))
(show on map)
|
|
| Fort Ritchie MD, 21719 |
|
http://www.epa.gov/reg3hscd/npl/MD0000795211.htm
http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/MD/ft-ritchie/pad.htm
|
|
|
Former Defense Site, Military
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
map |
search
|
|
|
|
